Kick-Ass (film)
Encyclopedia
Kick-Ass is a 2010 superhero
comedy film
based on the comic book of the same name by Mark Millar
and John Romita, Jr.
The film was directed by Matthew Vaughn
, who co-produced the film with actor Brad Pitt
, and co-wrote the screenplay with Jane Goldman
. The film's general release was on 25 March 2010 in the UK and on 16 April 2010 in the US.
The film tells the story of an ordinary teenager, Dave Lizewski, who sets out to become a real-life superhero
, calling himself "Kick-Ass". Dave gets caught up in a bigger fight when he meets Big Daddy, a former cop who, in his quest to bring down the drug lord Frank D'Amico, has trained his eleven-year-old daughter to be the ruthless vigilante
Hit-Girl.
Despite having generated some controversy for its profanity and violence performed by a child, Kick-Ass was well received by both critics and audiences.
, and is bitter that people do not intervene when a crime is being committed. He purchases a bodysuit and, after making modifications, embarks on a campaign to become a real-life superhero, despite having no superpower
s or skills. After his first crime-fighting encounter leads to his getting stabbed and getting run over in a hit and run
, leaving him with permanent nerve damage, he gains an enhanced capacity to endure pain, and surgical implants required to repair multiple skeletal fractures give him resistance to further bone-crushing injuries. His effort to conceal the truth, claiming he had had his clothes thrown off after being mugged, leads to rumors that he is gay
. His longtime crush, Katie Deauxma (Lyndsy Fonseca
) immediately attempts to become his friend, having always wanted a "gay BFF"; Dave hesitantly goes along with it. After intervening in a gang attack, Dave's actions are recorded by a bystander and put on the internet, turning him into a celebrity. Calling himself "Kick-Ass", he sets up a MySpace account so he can be contacted for help. After responding to a request from Katie, he goes to deal with a drug dealer, Rasul, who has been harassing her. Rasul and his thugs quickly overpower him, but he is rescued by eleven-year-old vigilante Hit-Girl (Chloë Moretz
), who kills his attackers and then leaves with her father, Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage
). They believe he has potential, but warn him to be more careful, and give him a way to contact them if needed.
Big Daddy is Damon Macready, a former cop who has a long-standing grudge against crime boss Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong
) for framing him as a drug dealer, leading to the suicide of his wife. His former partner at the New York Police Department, Marcus Williams (Omari Hardwick
), became guardian to his daughter, Mindy. Big Daddy, however, has reclaimed Mindy and is training her to be a skilled crime-fighter, against Marcus' wishes, hoping to take down D'Amico, starting by sabotaging his organization. D'Amico, however, wrongly believes that Kick-Ass has killed his men, when it has actually been Big Daddy, and embarks on a campaign to eliminate him. His son, Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse
), suggests a different approach. He assumes the role of the vigilante "Red Mist" in order to befriend Kick-Ass and lure him into a trap. But the trap is undone by Big Daddy, who independently kills D'Amico's men and sets the building on fire. Following his escape from the warehouse fire, Dave determines to quit being Kick-Ass. He confesses the truth to Katie, and she forgives him and becomes his girlfriend. A week later, after finding a number of messages from Red Mist urgently requesting they meet, he tells Katie that he must do one last thing as Kick-Ass. At the meeting Red Mist purports to just barely having escaped an assassination attempt by associates of the men who were killed at the warehouse, and to a price having been put on both of their heads. He adjures him to call Big Daddy and Hit-Girl to the rescue. This is actually a ruse in order to lead D'Amico's thugs to the superheroes and then kill them. Upon arriving at one of Big Daddy's safe houses, Red Mist shoots Hit-Girl out of a window and D'Amico's men storm the place. They capture Big Daddy, taking Kick-Ass with them. D'Amico intends to have his thugs torture and execute his captives in a live Internet broadcast viewed by millions, including Katie and Marcus, who can only watch helplessly. Hit-Girl, who survived the shooting, arrives and kills all the gangsters; during the struggle, one thug sets Big Daddy on fire. He and Hit-Girl say a tearful farewell before he dies. Kick-Ass tries to convince Hit-Girl to quit her dangerous lifestyle, but she plans to finish what her father started, and Kick-Ass agrees to help.
In the assault on D'Amico's headquarters, Hit-Girl kills most of the henchmen, but runs out of bullets and is pinned in the kitchen under fire. Kick-Ass arrives in time on a jet pack
fitted with gatling gun
s, and kills the remaining thugs. Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl then take on D'Amico and his son. Kick-Ass fights Red Mist but they manage to knock each other unconscious. Hit-Girl fights D'Amico, but she is eventually overpowered. As D'Amico is about to finish off Hit-Girl, Kick-Ass comes to the rescue, armed with a rocket launcher, blasting D'Amico out of the window where he explodes in mid-air. Red Mist revives in time to see Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl leaving on the jet pack, and is powerless to stop them. Mindy and Dave retire from crime fighting to live a more normal life. Mindy returns to live with Marcus, and enrolls at Dave's school. Dave explains that although he is done with crime fighting, a new "generation" of superheroes have been inspired by his endeavor, and the city is safer as a result. Red Mist is shown donning a new mask as he quotes Jack Nicholson as the Joker
, "As a great man once said, 'Wait till they get a load of me'."
Series-creator Millar, a native of Scotland
, asked Scottish television children's-show host Glen Michael
to make a cameo appearance
although his role was cut from the film.
Millar was also set to make a cameo as a Scottish alcoholic but the scene was cut from the film.
WCBS-TV
news reporters Maurice DuBois
, Dana Tyler
, and Lou Young make cameo appearance
s.
An image of Matthew Vaughn
's wife, model Claudia Schiffer
, appears prominently on a billboard poster.
Developed in parallel the film writers took a different story direction, to reach many of the same conclusions. Mark Millar
acknowledges the differences, explaining that a comic usually has eight acts, while a film usually has a three act structure.
Vaughn notes that, "We wrote the script and the comic at the same time so it was a very sort of collaborative, organic process. I met [Millar] at the premiere of Stardust. We got on really well. I knew who he was and what he had done but I didn't know him. He pitched me the idea. I said, 'That's great!' He then wrote a synopsis. I went, 'That's great, let's go do it now! You write the comic, I'll write the script. Jane Goldman
one of the screenwriters, said that when she works with Vaughn she does the "construction work" and the "interior designing" while Vaughn acts as the "architect."
Millar commented that screenwriters Goldman and Vaughn had made a "chick flick
", having placed more emphasis on the character emotions, and particularly in having softened the character of Katie Deauxma. Millar stated that a film audience would have difficulty accepting Dave and Katie not being together, while a comic audience would more easily accept that idea. Frank Lovece of Film Journal International
says that Katie is "much less Mean Girls
" in the film than in the comic, and that the romance between Dave and Katie "proves a needed counterbalance to the otherwise pervasive sense of optimism being stripped away layer by layer, down below angry cynicism
and headed straight down the hole to nihilism
." Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times
said "the romance provides an appealing backdrop that the more unnerving aspects of the film play out against."
Other changes included having Red Mist be known to be a secret antagonist from the start, as well as making him less outright villainous, and D'Amico's mob initially thinking Kick-Ass is the one slaughtering their men.
In the original comic-book, Big Daddy was revealed to be not an ex-cop, but a former accountant who had been motivated to fight crime by a desire to escape from his life and by his love of comic books. In the film, his purported origin and motivations are genuine: writer Mark Millar
considers that the revelation about Big Daddy's background would not have worked in the film adaptation, and would have "messed up the structure of the movie"
The comic's artist John Romita, Jr.
stated that Big Daddy's story in the film "works better stopping short (...) You love him better in the film".
The climax to the film differs significantly from the comics, with the use of the jetpack and rocket launcher: Millar called this "necessary" as "we're building up so much stuff that we needed some Luke Skywalker
blowing up the Death Star
moment". Comic writer Stephen Grant argued that the film "cheated" on its premise of a 'real life' superhero by having these increasingly fantastic events and that this was "why it works. That's where much of the humor comes from... when the film finally makes the notion [the fantasy] explicit we're already so deep into the magician's act that our instinct is to play along".
Vaughn initially went to Sony
, which distributed Layer Cake
, but he rejected calls to tone down the violence. Other studios expressed interest but wanted to make the characters older.
In particular studios wanted to change Hit-Girl's character into an adult. Goldman said that while studio executives said that it would be less offensive to portray Hit-Girl as a teenager, Goldman argued that it would have been more offensive since, as a teenager, Hit-Girl would have been sexualized. Goldman said that Hit-Girl was not supposed to be sexualized.
Vaughn had a little trouble adapting to film: the film had no studio. The big studios doubted the success of adaptation as a violent superhero, which made the film be independently financed, but this gave him the freedom to make the film the way he imagined, without having to worry about high-censorship. Vaughn believed enough in the project to raise the money himself. Christopher Mintz-Plasse
, (Red Mist), said that the creators of the film were wondering whether a distributor would pick up the movie. On the set Vaughn jokingly referred to Kick-Ass as something that was going to be "the most expensive home movie I ever made."
The 2D/3D animated comic book sequence in the film took almost two years to finish. Romita created the pencils, Tom Palmer
did the inks, and Dean White
did the colours. Vaughn gave Romita a carte blanche on the art direction of the sequence.
, Aaron Johnson confirmed that the film stays true to the adult nature of the comic series by featuring a large amount of profanity and graphic violence. The film received an R rating by the MPAA
for strong brutal violence throughout, pervasive language, sexual content, nudity and some drug use—some involving children, and it received a 15 rating from the BBFC
.
Director Matthew Vaughn felt the 15 certificate was about right and expressed some surprise at the film having received a "PG rating"[sic] in France.
, Canada; Dip 'N' Sip Donuts on Kingston Road
, Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School
, and "many Toronto landmarks that play cameos"; and various locations in the UK, including Elstree Studios
.
The opening sequence with Nicolas Cage was filmed in a sewage plant in East London.
The Atomic Comics store in the film is based on the real-life chain whose owner, Millar said, is a friend of artist John Romita Jr.'s.
Miller asked Mike Malve for permission to use Atomic Comics in the film, and a model version of Atomic Comics was created at the London pilot studio for use in the filming.
, who was eleven years old at the time of filming. Australian Family Association
spokesman John Morrissey
claimed that "the language [was] offensive and the values inappropriate; without the saving grace of the bloodless victory of traditional superheroes".
Several critics like Roger Ebert
and the Daily Mail
s Christopher Tookey
accused the film of glorifying violence, particularly violence by young children, while Tookey also claimed Hit Girl was "made to look as seductive as possible". Tookey's view on Hit Girl was strongly criticised, with many commentators—including Andrew Collins
, the film editor of Radio Times
—wondering why he had found the character sexualised, causing him to claim he was a victim of cyber-bullying.
In response to the controversy, Moretz stated in an interview, "If I ever uttered one word that I said in Kick-Ass, I would be grounded for years! I'd be stuck in my room until I was 20! I would never in a million years say that. I'm an average, everyday girl."
Moretz has said that while filming, she could not bring herself to say the film's title out loud in interviews, instead calling it "the film" in public and "Kick-Butt" at home.
Christopher Mintz-Plasse expressed surprise that people were angry about the language, but did not seem to be offended that Hit-Girl kills many people.
The film earned over $12 million internationally in advance of opening in the United States.
On its debut weekend in the United States, it took in $19.8 million in 3,065 theaters, averaging $6,469 per theater. Kick-Ass was reported #1, ahead of How to Train Your Dragon
by $200,000, which was in its third week of release. On Saturday, April 17th, 2010, it fell down to #3 behind How To Train Your Dragon and Date Night. On Sunday, May 2nd, 2010, it fell down behind A Nighmare On Elm Street, How To Train Your Dragon, Furry Vengeance, The Back-Up Plan, Date Night, Clash Of The Titans and The Losers. These numbers for Kick-Asss debut weekend gross included non-weekend earnings, as the film was previewed during the Thursday night prior to its release. This has led to the speculation that How to Train Your Dragon would have been No.1 for the weekend of 16 April had these earnings not been counted. The opening week numbers were considered by some analysts and the media to be a disappointment, though by others to be "fairly solid."
The film's final gross in the U.S. was $48,071,303 and $48,117,600 outside of the U.S.
The film proved popular with audiences and was met with generally positive reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes
gave the film a rating of 76% based on 229 reviews, with an average score of 7.0/10.
Rotten Tomatoes' selected top critics gave the film a rating of 85% based on 13 reviews.
Metacritic
assigned the film a score of 66%, based on a weighted average of 38 reviews from mainstream critics.
In the United Kingdom The Guardian
gave the film extensive coverage by several of its critics and journalists.
Peter Bradshaw
gives the film 5/5 calling it an "explosion in a bad taste factory" and a "thoroughly outrageous, jaw-droppingly violent and very funny riff on the quasi-porn world of comic books; except that there is absolutely no 'quasi' about it."
Philip French
, writing for The Guardian
s Sunday associate paper The Observer
, called the film "relentlessly violent" with "the foulest mouthed child ever to appear on screen, [who makes] Louis Malle
's Zazie sound like Cosette
" and one "extremely knowing in its appeal to connoisseurs of comic strips and video games."
David Cox, also from The Guardian, noted that the film "kicks the c-word into the mainstream...inadvertently dispatch[ing] our last big expletive."
Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph
did not like the film giving it just 1/5 and stated, "Matthew Vaughn's Kick Ass is hollow, glazed, and not quite there".
Christopher Tookey
of the Daily Mail
warned, "Don't be fooled by the hype: This crime against cinema is twisted, cynical, and revels in the abuse of childhood".
Chris Hewitt of Empire
magazine gave the film 5/5 and declared it, "A ridiculously entertaining, perfectly paced, ultra-violent cinematic rush that kicks the places other movies struggle to reach. ... [T]he film's violence is clearly fantastical and cartoonish and not to be taken seriously."
International critics who enjoyed the film generally singled out its audacity, humour, and performance from Chloë Moretz.
Peter Howell
of the Toronto Star
gave Kick-Ass a top rating, noting that the production "succeeds as a violent fantasy about our perilous and fretful times, where regular citizens feel compelled to take action against a social order rotting from within."
USA Today
critic Claudia Puig praised Moretz as "terrific...Even as she wields outlandish weaponry, she comes off as adorable."
Manohla Dargis
from The New York Times
wrote, "Fast, periodically spit-funny and often grotesquely violent, the film at once embraces and satirizes contemporary action-film clichés with Tarantino-esque self-regard."
Owen Gleiberman
of Entertainment Weekly
gave the film a B+, but noted that "personally, I just wish that the film had ended up a bit less of an over-the-top action ride."
In Film Journal International
, former Marvel Comics
writer Frank Lovece
said the "delightfully dynamic" movie "actually improves on the comic by not metaphorically kicking in our hero's teeth ... and making him a sad-sack schmuck who was wrong about nearly everything." He found that, "Comedy-of-manners dry humor ... plays seamlessly amid scenes of stylized, off-camera mayhem."
Roger Ebert
gave the film one out of four stars. He called the film "morally reprehensible", appalled by the violent scenes in which an eleven-year-old murders dozens of gang members and is then almost beaten to death by an adult man. "When kids in the age range of this movie's home video audience are shooting one another every day in America, that kind of stops being funny." The movie made that week's "Your Movie Sucks" list of one-star movies.
Cinema Blend
accused the film of simply rehashing ideas from older superhero films, saying, "It's a subject which has already been covered endlessly by other movies, but Matthew Vaughn's film seems completely unaware of this fact, and bulls its way onward as if it's discovered something new."
Karina Longworth
was also not impressed with the film's intended satire and themes: "Never as shocking as it thinks it is, as funny as it should be, or as engaged in cultural critique as it could be, Kick-Ass is half-assed."
The film was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on 3 August 2010 in North America.
This version does not contain the aforementioned deleted content.
Selling 1.4 million units within its first week, one-third of these in Blu-Ray format, Kick-Ass debuted at number one on the DVD sales chart. The discs released in the United Kingdom on 6 September 2010.
was produced by WHA Entertainment and Frozen Codebase
. It was released through the App Store on 15 April 2010 for iPhone
and iPod Touch
.
The initial Apple platform releases were reportedly unfinished beta versions and were withdrawn from circulation pending a relaunch of a finished version. The game was released on PlayStation Network on 29 April 2010. Kick-Ass, Hit-Girl and Big Daddy are playable characters. The game features Facebook missions and integration.
Both versions of the game received poor reviews.
Moretz is enthusiastic about the idea of a sequel and said she would love to reprise the role of Hit-Girl.
On 16 March 2010, Mark Millar said he would begin writing a sequel comic book in April.
On 9 April 2010, Millar revealed details for the second series, which he said would involve criminals taking on supervillain personae to counter the superheroes, and Hit-Girl trying to lead a normal life.
In a 31 August 2010 interview with Richard Bacon on BBC Radio 5 Live
, Millar suggested that a sequel might have been given a go-ahead, speculating, "The estimate is [Kick-Ass] will do 100 to 150 million on DVD based on the American sales, you know, so it'll end up making a quarter of a billion on a 28 million investment. So it should be okay. So the sequel's green-lit, we can go ahead and do the follow up now, you know. The first made so much compared to what it cost it would be crazy not to."
In August 2010, Millar told MTV a sequel would be made and it would be called Kick-Ass: Balls 2 The Wall, though he admitted the earliest production could begin would be mid-2011.
On 5 April 2011, Jane Goldman
said, "I don't think it's going to happen. At the moment, it's not in the works. We're all doing different things at the moment. We would love to do it again, but we've all been pulled in different directions."
On 24 May 2011, Vaughn said that he felt doing a sequel would be "crass". On 22 September 2011, Millar remarked that a sequel would be difficult to make. However, he also commented that "I obviously know more than I can say, but I think people will be pretty happy with the conversations we’ve been having". On 16 October 2011, when asked about the sequel, Moretz replied "Maybe, I can't say anything, but a little bit of news is coming. Just something, something we got up our sleeves." On 28 October, it was stated that the sequel will be announced soon.
Superhero film
A superhero film, superhero movie, or superhero motion picture is: action, fantasy and science fiction film; that is focused on the actions of one or more superheroes, individuals who usually possess superhuman abilities relative to a normal person and are dedicated to protecting the public...
comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
based on the comic book of the same name by Mark Millar
Mark Millar
Mark Millar is a Scottish comic book writer, known for his work on books such as The Authority, The Ultimates, Marvel Knights Spider-Man, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Civil War, Wanted, and Kick-Ass, the latter two of which have been adapted into feature films...
and John Romita, Jr.
John Romita, Jr.
John Salvatore Romita, Jr. is an American comic book artist best known for his extensive work for Marvel Comics from the 1970s to the 2000s...
The film was directed by Matthew Vaughn
Matthew Vaughn
Matthew Vaughn is an English film producer and director known for producing such films as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch and directing the films Layer Cake , Stardust and Kick-Ass...
, who co-produced the film with actor Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
, and co-wrote the screenplay with Jane Goldman
Jane Goldman
Jane Lauretta Anne Goldman is an English screenwriter, author, model and television presenter. Between 2003 and 2004 she fronted her own paranormal series, Jane Goldman Investigates, on the channel Living.-Personal life:...
. The film's general release was on 25 March 2010 in the UK and on 16 April 2010 in the US.
The film tells the story of an ordinary teenager, Dave Lizewski, who sets out to become a real-life superhero
Real-life superhero
Real-life superheroes are people who engage in different forms of activism using the thematic device of the costumed superhero, many of them adopting pseudonyms and wearing custom-made outfits. They perform services that they believe benefit the community in a variety of ways, but which may be...
, calling himself "Kick-Ass". Dave gets caught up in a bigger fight when he meets Big Daddy, a former cop who, in his quest to bring down the drug lord Frank D'Amico, has trained his eleven-year-old daughter to be the ruthless vigilante
Vigilante
A vigilante is a private individual who legally or illegally punishes an alleged lawbreaker, or participates in a group which metes out extralegal punishment to an alleged lawbreaker....
Hit-Girl.
Despite having generated some controversy for its profanity and violence performed by a child, Kick-Ass was well received by both critics and audiences.
Plot
Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is an ordinary teenager who lives in New York. Dave, an avid comic book fan, wonders why nobody has attempted to become a real-life superheroReal-life superhero
Real-life superheroes are people who engage in different forms of activism using the thematic device of the costumed superhero, many of them adopting pseudonyms and wearing custom-made outfits. They perform services that they believe benefit the community in a variety of ways, but which may be...
, and is bitter that people do not intervene when a crime is being committed. He purchases a bodysuit and, after making modifications, embarks on a campaign to become a real-life superhero, despite having no superpower
Superpower (ability)
Superpower is a popular culture term for a fictional superhuman ability. When a character possesses multiple such abilities, the terms super powers or simply powers are used...
s or skills. After his first crime-fighting encounter leads to his getting stabbed and getting run over in a hit and run
Hit and run (vehicular)
Hit-and-run is the act of causing a traffic accident , and failing to stop and identify oneself afterwards...
, leaving him with permanent nerve damage, he gains an enhanced capacity to endure pain, and surgical implants required to repair multiple skeletal fractures give him resistance to further bone-crushing injuries. His effort to conceal the truth, claiming he had had his clothes thrown off after being mugged, leads to rumors that he is gay
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
. His longtime crush, Katie Deauxma (Lyndsy Fonseca
Lyndsy Fonseca
Lyndsy Marie Fonseca is an American actress known for playing Colleen Carlton on the CBS daytime soap opera The Young and The Restless, Dylan Mayfair on the ABC series Desperate Housewives, and Ted Mosby's daughter on How I Met Your Mother. She also played Katie Deauxma in the 2010 superhero film...
) immediately attempts to become his friend, having always wanted a "gay BFF"; Dave hesitantly goes along with it. After intervening in a gang attack, Dave's actions are recorded by a bystander and put on the internet, turning him into a celebrity. Calling himself "Kick-Ass", he sets up a MySpace account so he can be contacted for help. After responding to a request from Katie, he goes to deal with a drug dealer, Rasul, who has been harassing her. Rasul and his thugs quickly overpower him, but he is rescued by eleven-year-old vigilante Hit-Girl (Chloë Moretz
Chloe Moretz
Chloë Grace Moretz is an American actress, known for her role as Hit-Girl in the 2010 superhero film Kick-Ass. She also appeared in The Amityville Horror, Days of Summer, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Hugo, and portrayed Abby, the child vampire, in Let Me In.-Personal life:Moretz was born in Atlanta,...
), who kills his attackers and then leaves with her father, Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage is an American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona , The Rock , Face/Off , Gone in 60 Seconds , Adaptation , National Treasure , Ghost Rider , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , and...
). They believe he has potential, but warn him to be more careful, and give him a way to contact them if needed.
Big Daddy is Damon Macready, a former cop who has a long-standing grudge against crime boss Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong
Mark Strong
Mark Strong is an English actor, with a body of work in both films and television. He has performed in films as varied as Body of Lies, Syriana, The Young Victoria, Sherlock Holmes, RocknRolla, Stardust, and Kick-Ass...
) for framing him as a drug dealer, leading to the suicide of his wife. His former partner at the New York Police Department, Marcus Williams (Omari Hardwick
Omari Hardwick
Omari Lateef Hardwick is an American actor, known for his roles in the TV series Saved and Dark Blue, and in the movies Spike Lee's Miracle at St...
), became guardian to his daughter, Mindy. Big Daddy, however, has reclaimed Mindy and is training her to be a skilled crime-fighter, against Marcus' wishes, hoping to take down D'Amico, starting by sabotaging his organization. D'Amico, however, wrongly believes that Kick-Ass has killed his men, when it has actually been Big Daddy, and embarks on a campaign to eliminate him. His son, Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Christopher Charles Mintz-Plasse is an American actor known for starring in films such as Superbad, Role Models, Year One, and Kick-Ass.-Early life:...
), suggests a different approach. He assumes the role of the vigilante "Red Mist" in order to befriend Kick-Ass and lure him into a trap. But the trap is undone by Big Daddy, who independently kills D'Amico's men and sets the building on fire. Following his escape from the warehouse fire, Dave determines to quit being Kick-Ass. He confesses the truth to Katie, and she forgives him and becomes his girlfriend. A week later, after finding a number of messages from Red Mist urgently requesting they meet, he tells Katie that he must do one last thing as Kick-Ass. At the meeting Red Mist purports to just barely having escaped an assassination attempt by associates of the men who were killed at the warehouse, and to a price having been put on both of their heads. He adjures him to call Big Daddy and Hit-Girl to the rescue. This is actually a ruse in order to lead D'Amico's thugs to the superheroes and then kill them. Upon arriving at one of Big Daddy's safe houses, Red Mist shoots Hit-Girl out of a window and D'Amico's men storm the place. They capture Big Daddy, taking Kick-Ass with them. D'Amico intends to have his thugs torture and execute his captives in a live Internet broadcast viewed by millions, including Katie and Marcus, who can only watch helplessly. Hit-Girl, who survived the shooting, arrives and kills all the gangsters; during the struggle, one thug sets Big Daddy on fire. He and Hit-Girl say a tearful farewell before he dies. Kick-Ass tries to convince Hit-Girl to quit her dangerous lifestyle, but she plans to finish what her father started, and Kick-Ass agrees to help.
In the assault on D'Amico's headquarters, Hit-Girl kills most of the henchmen, but runs out of bullets and is pinned in the kitchen under fire. Kick-Ass arrives in time on a jet pack
Jet pack
Jet pack, rocket belt, rocket pack, and similar names are various types of devices, usually worn on the back, that are propelled by jets of escaping gases so as to allow a single user to fly....
fitted with gatling gun
Gatling gun
The Gatling gun is one of the best known early rapid-fire weapons and a forerunner of the modern machine gun. It is well known for its use by the Union forces during the American Civil War in the 1860s, which was the first time it was employed in combat...
s, and kills the remaining thugs. Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl then take on D'Amico and his son. Kick-Ass fights Red Mist but they manage to knock each other unconscious. Hit-Girl fights D'Amico, but she is eventually overpowered. As D'Amico is about to finish off Hit-Girl, Kick-Ass comes to the rescue, armed with a rocket launcher, blasting D'Amico out of the window where he explodes in mid-air. Red Mist revives in time to see Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl leaving on the jet pack, and is powerless to stop them. Mindy and Dave retire from crime fighting to live a more normal life. Mindy returns to live with Marcus, and enrolls at Dave's school. Dave explains that although he is done with crime fighting, a new "generation" of superheroes have been inspired by his endeavor, and the city is safer as a result. Red Mist is shown donning a new mask as he quotes Jack Nicholson as the Joker
Batman (1989 film)
Batman is a 1989 superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name, directed by Tim Burton. The film stars Michael Keaton in the title role, as well as Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl and Jack Palance...
, "As a great man once said, 'Wait till they get a load of me'."
Cast
- Aaron Johnson as David "Dave" Lizewski / Kick-Ass: Johnson said that Kick-Ass is a "sensitive guy" who lost his mother and is a "nobody" at school, so he creates his superhero identity "as this whole different persona." Johnson said that Dave is "a kid who’s got the guts to go out there and do something different." Christopher Mintz-PlasseChristopher Mintz-PlasseChristopher Charles Mintz-Plasse is an American actor known for starring in films such as Superbad, Role Models, Year One, and Kick-Ass.-Early life:...
originally auditioned for the role of Kick-Ass, but during the audition the producers believed that his acting was too loud and obnoxious for the lead, so they immediately gave Mintz-Plasse the role of Red Mist instead. - Nicolas CageNicolas CageNicolas Cage is an American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona , The Rock , Face/Off , Gone in 60 Seconds , Adaptation , National Treasure , Ghost Rider , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , and...
as Damon Macready / Big Daddy: Vaughn described Cage's performance as a little bit ElvisElvis PresleyElvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
and a little bit Adam WestAdam WestWilliam West Anderson , better known by the stage name Adam West, is an American actor best known for his lead role in the Batman TV series and the film of the same name...
. A character in the film even says his costume looks like that of BatmanBatmanBatman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
. Cage was inspired by his costume to try delivering his lines in the same style Adam WestAdam WestWilliam West Anderson , better known by the stage name Adam West, is an American actor best known for his lead role in the Batman TV series and the film of the same name...
used for BatmanBatman (TV series)Batman is an American television series, based on the DC comic book character of the same name. It stars Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin — two crime-fighting heroes who defend Gotham City. It aired on the American Broadcasting Company network for three seasons from January 12, 1966 to...
. The police officer father of an ex-girlfriend also influenced his performance; the habit of Big Daddy referring to Hit-Girl as "child" stems from the police officer. - Chloë Grace Moretz as Mindy Macready / Hit-Girl: Vaughn commented on the maturity of Moretz, who said that because she has four older brothers, she was no stranger to much of the language in the script. Her mother read the script and permitted her to use the profanity in the movie. Jane GoldmanJane GoldmanJane Lauretta Anne Goldman is an English screenwriter, author, model and television presenter. Between 2003 and 2004 she fronted her own paranormal series, Jane Goldman Investigates, on the channel Living.-Personal life:...
, one of the two co-writers of the script, said, "We just really wanted Hit-Girl to be a character who, in a sense, simply happens to be an eleven-year-old girl, in the same way that RipleyEllen RipleyEllen Ripley is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Alien film series played by American actress Sigourney Weaver. The character was heralded as a seminal role for challenging gender roles, particularly in the science fiction genre, and remains Weaver's most famous role to...
in AlienAlien (film)Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto. The film's title refers to its primary antagonist: a highly aggressive extraterrestrial creature which...
could have been a guy but the part happened to be played by Sigourney WeaverSigourney WeaverSigourney Weaver is an American actress. She is best known for her critically acclaimed role of Ellen Ripley in the four Alien films: Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection, for which she has received worldwide recognition .Other notable roles include Dana...
." Goldman said that Mindy "is genuinely dangerous, she's genuinely mad. It's not her fault: she's been raised in this environment where she doesn't know anything different. She's unwittingly part of a folie a deuxFolie à deux-Further reading:*Halgin, R. & Whitbourne, S. Abnormal Psychology: Clinical Perspectives on Psychological Disorders. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0072817216...
." When asked if Hit-Girl could be considered a feminist heroine, Goldman said "Yeah... she's a feminist hero by token of the fact that she pays no attention to gender stereotypes. I think she also doesn't want special treatment because she's a girl." Moretz said that it was entertaining to illustrate the differences between Mindy and her superheroine identity "for me, ’cause it’s almost like an alternate personality." Lewis Wallace of WiredWired (magazine)Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
said that Mindy "gets all the good lines, capping every TarantinoQuentin TarantinoQuentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
-scale bloodletting with a foul-mouthed joke." Christopher Mintz-PlasseChristopher Mintz-PlasseChristopher Charles Mintz-Plasse is an American actor known for starring in films such as Superbad, Role Models, Year One, and Kick-Ass.-Early life:...
, the actor who portrays Red Mist, said that "[Kick-Ass and Red Mist] don’t have any of the action in the movie. It’s all Hit Girl." Vaughn said that Hit-Girl is a part of "the ultimate father-daughter relationship, where Barbie dolls are replaced with knives, and unicorns become hand grenades." To prepare for her role, Moretz took months of training in learning how to handle guns and to use butterfly knives and swords. Moretz stated that the shooting of the action scenes was arduous. Romita compared how Big Daddy raised Hit Girl to show parents of juvenile professional athletes raise their children. Romita added "They become unconscious athletes, almost to a fault. They become hardened. It kind of works the same way. If you treat someone so intensely, ... why couldn't they? I don't believe the 'unbelievable' part." Goldman said that the aspect of the film adaptation that excited her the most was adapting Hit Girl's storyline to the film. In the summer of 2008, Moretz saw posters of Angelina JolieAngelina JolieAngelina Jolie is an American actress. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and was named Hollywood's highest-paid actress by Forbes in 2009 and 2011. Jolie is noted for promoting humanitarian causes as a Goodwill Ambassador for the...
, the star of the film Wanted, in Los Angeles, prompting her to ask for a role that she described as "an Angelina Jolie-type character" and "like an action hero, woman empowerment, awesome, take-charge leading role." One month later, she was offered the role of Hit Girl. Millar said he expected the character to receive mostly negative reception, "But the movie was so well made, I think, that people were quietly charmed by her for the most part. The only really negative thing we saw came from Roger Ebert and others from his generation who were upset, but there were those especially here in the [United Kingdom] [who] went crazy for her." Millar added he and Vaughn "were quite surprised about that. We were expecting the worst, that people were going to say she was amoral and we [in turn] were going to get killed for her. But it was much more of a case where people were positive about Hit-Girl even saying she was empowering female character." - Christopher Mintz-PlasseChristopher Mintz-PlasseChristopher Charles Mintz-Plasse is an American actor known for starring in films such as Superbad, Role Models, Year One, and Kick-Ass.-Early life:...
as Chris D'Amico / Red Mist: Frank D'Amico's son. Millar said "the idea was that he was going to be a more minor character in the first film. Then we saw what Christopher Mintz-Plasse was capable of! [...] So the idea of McLovin' and the fun Red Mist doing something horrible is genuinely quite disturbing when you see it happen. We couldn't have got away with that with another actor. The minute we saw his performance, we were looking at each other and realised how good he was and what we could do with him in the future...." Mintz-Plasse said that when he first wore the Red Mist costume, he felt that it was entertaining and that he "looked so bad-ass." The actor sent photographs of himself in costume to his friends. Three weeks into the filming, Mintz-Plasse decided that the costume was not very comfortable and "a big pain in the ass." Mintz-Plasse wore the costume for 12 hours per filming day. Mintz-Plasse had to learn how to use a stick-shift in order to drive the Ford MustangFord MustangThe Ford Mustang is an automobile manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. It was initially based on the second generation North American Ford Falcon, a compact car. Introduced early on April 17, 1964, as a "1964½" model, the 1965 Mustang was the automaker's most successful launch since the Model A...
that is used in the film. Vaughn told Mintz-Plasse that the actor would have to pay for the car if he crashed it. - Mark StrongMark StrongMark Strong is an English actor, with a body of work in both films and television. He has performed in films as varied as Body of Lies, Syriana, The Young Victoria, Sherlock Holmes, RocknRolla, Stardust, and Kick-Ass...
as Frank D'Amico: The head of a criminal organization. Strong says he is drawn to playing the antagonist. He tries to "understand the purpose of the character", and then work on building a believable individual. - Lyndsy FonsecaLyndsy FonsecaLyndsy Marie Fonseca is an American actress known for playing Colleen Carlton on the CBS daytime soap opera The Young and The Restless, Dylan Mayfair on the ABC series Desperate Housewives, and Ted Mosby's daughter on How I Met Your Mother. She also played Katie Deauxma in the 2010 superhero film...
as Katie Deauxma: Dave's longtime crush and eventual girlfriend - Michael RispoliMichael RispoliMichael Rispoli is an American character actor. He was formerly part of the HBO television series The Sopranos as Jackie Aprile, Sr...
as Big Joe - Kofi Natei as Rasul: A gang leader whom Dave (as Kick-Ass) fights until Hit-Girl arrives to kill the gang members.
- Yancy ButlerYancy ButlerYancy Victoria Butler is an American television and movie actress known for her roles as Natasha Binder in the 1993 John Woo film Hard Target and as Detective Sara Pezzini on the TNT supernatural drama Witchblade.-Early life:...
as Angie D'Amico: Frank's wife and Chris' mother. - Jason FlemyngJason FlemyngJason Iain Flemyng is an English actor. He is known for his film work, which has included roles in British films such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch , both for Guy Ritchie, as well as Hollywood productions such as Rob Roy along with the Alan Moore comic book adaptations From...
as Lobby Goon: The building doorman. - Elizabeth McGovernElizabeth McGovern-Early life:McGovern was born in Evanston, Illinois, the daughter of Katharine Wolcott , a high school teacher, and William Montgomery McGovern, Jr., a university professor. Her paternal grandfather was adventurer William Montgomery McGovern and her maternal great-grandfather was U.S. diplomat...
as Alice Lizewski - Garrett M. Brown as Mr. Lizewski
- Sophie Wu as Erika Cho: Katie's best friend.
- Dexter FletcherDexter FletcherDexter Fletcher is an English actor. He is best known for his role in Guy Ritchie film, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels as well as television roles in such shows as the dramedy Hotel Babylon, the critically acclaimed HBO series Band of Brothers and earlier in his career, the children's show...
as Cody - Clark DukeClark DukeClark Duke is an American actor known for his roles in the films Kick-Ass, Sex Drive and Hot Tub Time Machine, as well as playing Dale Kettlewell in the TV series Greek.-Life and career:...
and Evan PetersEvan PetersEvan Peters is an American actor, best known for his roles as Tate Langdon in American Horror Story, Jesse Varon in the ABC TV series Invasion and as Cooper Day in The Days, also on ABC. He also had a recurring role in Disney Channel's show Phil of the Future as Phil's geeky friend Seth...
as Marty and Todd: Dave's two best friends. - Xander BerkeleyXander BerkeleyAlexander Harper "Xander" Berkeley is an American actor. His roles include George Mason on the television series 24.-Early life:Berkeley was born in Brooklyn, New York, but has lived most of his life in New Jersey...
as Detective Victor "Vic" Gigante: A police officer working for D'Amico. - Omari HardwickOmari HardwickOmari Lateef Hardwick is an American actor, known for his roles in the TV series Saved and Dark Blue, and in the movies Spike Lee's Miracle at St...
as Sergeant Marcus Williams: Former partner of Damon Macready. - Deborah Twiss as Mrs. Zane: Dave's English teacher.
- Stu "Large" Riley as Huge Goon: A bodyguard to the D'Amico family.
- Craig FergusonCraig FergusonCraig Ferguson is a Scottish American television host, stand-up comedian, writer, actor, director, author, and producer. He is the host of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, an Emmy Award-nominated, Peabody Award-winning late-night talk show that airs on CBS...
as Himself - John Romita, Jr.John Romita, Jr.John Salvatore Romita, Jr. is an American comic book artist best known for his extensive work for Marvel Comics from the 1970s to the 2000s...
as Atomic Comics barista - Hubert Boorder as Oscar Juarez
- Christopher McGuire as Diner Fight Guy #1
- Max White as Diner Fight Guy #2
- Dean Copkov as Diner Fight Guy #3
- Jacob Cartwright as Running Teenager
- Walle Jobara as Nervous Goon
- Kenneth Simmons as Scary Goon
Series-creator Millar, a native of Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, asked Scottish television children's-show host Glen Michael
Glen Michael
Glen Michael is a former children's television presenter and an entertainer. His career at Scottish Television spanned several decades with the popular show Glen Michael's Cartoon Cavalcade...
to make a cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
although his role was cut from the film.
Millar was also set to make a cameo as a Scottish alcoholic but the scene was cut from the film.
WCBS-TV
WCBS-TV
WCBS-TV, channel 2, is the flagship station of the CBS television network, located in New York City. The station's studios are located within the CBS Broadcast Center and its transmitter is atop the Empire State Building, both in Midtown Manhattan....
news reporters Maurice DuBois
Maurice DuBois
Maurice DuBois is an American television journalist.-Early life and education:He was born on Long Island, New York, the son of immigrants to the U.S...
, Dana Tyler
Dana Tyler
Dana Tyler is a senior news anchor and reporter at WCBS-TV in New York City. She currently anchors the 6 pm newscasts with Chris Wragge, and also hosts Eye on New York, a half-hour weekly community affairs program for WCBS, as well as annual local specials CBS 2 at Tony's, CBS 2 at the Met and...
, and Lou Young make cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
s.
An image of Matthew Vaughn
Matthew Vaughn
Matthew Vaughn is an English film producer and director known for producing such films as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch and directing the films Layer Cake , Stardust and Kick-Ass...
's wife, model Claudia Schiffer
Claudia Schiffer
Claudia Schiffer is a German model and occasional actress, who reached the peak of her popularity during the 1990s, initially due to her resemblance to Brigitte Bardot. Schiffer is one of the world's most successful models, having appeared on over 500 magazine covers...
, appears prominently on a billboard poster.
Development
The rights to a film version of the comic book were sold before the first issue was published.Developed in parallel the film writers took a different story direction, to reach many of the same conclusions. Mark Millar
Mark Millar
Mark Millar is a Scottish comic book writer, known for his work on books such as The Authority, The Ultimates, Marvel Knights Spider-Man, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Civil War, Wanted, and Kick-Ass, the latter two of which have been adapted into feature films...
acknowledges the differences, explaining that a comic usually has eight acts, while a film usually has a three act structure.
Vaughn notes that, "We wrote the script and the comic at the same time so it was a very sort of collaborative, organic process. I met [Millar] at the premiere of Stardust. We got on really well. I knew who he was and what he had done but I didn't know him. He pitched me the idea. I said, 'That's great!' He then wrote a synopsis. I went, 'That's great, let's go do it now! You write the comic, I'll write the script. Jane Goldman
Jane Goldman
Jane Lauretta Anne Goldman is an English screenwriter, author, model and television presenter. Between 2003 and 2004 she fronted her own paranormal series, Jane Goldman Investigates, on the channel Living.-Personal life:...
one of the screenwriters, said that when she works with Vaughn she does the "construction work" and the "interior designing" while Vaughn acts as the "architect."
Millar commented that screenwriters Goldman and Vaughn had made a "chick flick
Chick flick
Chick flick is a slang term for a film mainly dealing with love and romance designed to appeal to a female target audience. Although many types of films may be directed toward the female gender, "chick flick" is typically used only in reference to films that are heavy with emotion or contain themes...
", having placed more emphasis on the character emotions, and particularly in having softened the character of Katie Deauxma. Millar stated that a film audience would have difficulty accepting Dave and Katie not being together, while a comic audience would more easily accept that idea. Frank Lovece of Film Journal International
Film Journal International
Film Journal International is a motion-picture industry trade magazine published by the American company Prometheus Global Media. It is a sister publication of Adweek, Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, and other periodicals....
says that Katie is "much less Mean Girls
Mean Girls
Mean Girls is a 2004 American teen comedy-drama film directed by Mark Waters. The screenplay was written by Tina Fey and is based in part on the non-fiction book Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman, which describes how female high school social cliques operate and the effect they can have...
" in the film than in the comic, and that the romance between Dave and Katie "proves a needed counterbalance to the otherwise pervasive sense of optimism being stripped away layer by layer, down below angry cynicism
Cynicism
Cynicism , in its original form, refers to the beliefs of an ancient school of Greek philosophers known as the Cynics . Their philosophy was that the purpose of life was to live a life of Virtue in agreement with Nature. This meant rejecting all conventional desires for wealth, power, health, and...
and headed straight down the hole to nihilism
Nihilism
Nihilism is the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value...
." Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
said "the romance provides an appealing backdrop that the more unnerving aspects of the film play out against."
Other changes included having Red Mist be known to be a secret antagonist from the start, as well as making him less outright villainous, and D'Amico's mob initially thinking Kick-Ass is the one slaughtering their men.
In the original comic-book, Big Daddy was revealed to be not an ex-cop, but a former accountant who had been motivated to fight crime by a desire to escape from his life and by his love of comic books. In the film, his purported origin and motivations are genuine: writer Mark Millar
Mark Millar
Mark Millar is a Scottish comic book writer, known for his work on books such as The Authority, The Ultimates, Marvel Knights Spider-Man, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Civil War, Wanted, and Kick-Ass, the latter two of which have been adapted into feature films...
considers that the revelation about Big Daddy's background would not have worked in the film adaptation, and would have "messed up the structure of the movie"
The comic's artist John Romita, Jr.
John Romita, Jr.
John Salvatore Romita, Jr. is an American comic book artist best known for his extensive work for Marvel Comics from the 1970s to the 2000s...
stated that Big Daddy's story in the film "works better stopping short (...) You love him better in the film".
The climax to the film differs significantly from the comics, with the use of the jetpack and rocket launcher: Millar called this "necessary" as "we're building up so much stuff that we needed some Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
blowing up the Death Star
Death Star
The Death Star is a fictional moon-sized space station and superweapon appearing in the Star Wars movies and expanded universe. It is capable of destroying a planet with a single destructive super charged energy beam.-Origin and design:...
moment". Comic writer Stephen Grant argued that the film "cheated" on its premise of a 'real life' superhero by having these increasingly fantastic events and that this was "why it works. That's where much of the humor comes from... when the film finally makes the notion [the fantasy] explicit we're already so deep into the magician's act that our instinct is to play along".
Vaughn initially went to Sony
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony...
, which distributed Layer Cake
Layer Cake (film)
Layer Cake is a 2004 British crime thriller produced and directed by Matthew Vaughn, in his directorial debut. It is based on the novel Layer Cake by J. J...
, but he rejected calls to tone down the violence. Other studios expressed interest but wanted to make the characters older.
In particular studios wanted to change Hit-Girl's character into an adult. Goldman said that while studio executives said that it would be less offensive to portray Hit-Girl as a teenager, Goldman argued that it would have been more offensive since, as a teenager, Hit-Girl would have been sexualized. Goldman said that Hit-Girl was not supposed to be sexualized.
Vaughn had a little trouble adapting to film: the film had no studio. The big studios doubted the success of adaptation as a violent superhero, which made the film be independently financed, but this gave him the freedom to make the film the way he imagined, without having to worry about high-censorship. Vaughn believed enough in the project to raise the money himself. Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Christopher Charles Mintz-Plasse is an American actor known for starring in films such as Superbad, Role Models, Year One, and Kick-Ass.-Early life:...
, (Red Mist), said that the creators of the film were wondering whether a distributor would pick up the movie. On the set Vaughn jokingly referred to Kick-Ass as something that was going to be "the most expensive home movie I ever made."
The 2D/3D animated comic book sequence in the film took almost two years to finish. Romita created the pencils, Tom Palmer
Tom Palmer (comics)
-Biography:Although Palmer has done a small amount of pencilling work , the vast majority of his artistic output since the 1960s has been as a comic book inker...
did the inks, and Dean White
Dean White
Dean White is an entrepreneur from Crown Point, Indiana. His father challenged him to "make a million dollars by your 40th birthday". White claims that he's "Missed, at the most, 12 days of work since 1946."...
did the colours. Vaughn gave Romita a carte blanche on the art direction of the sequence.
Ratings
In an interview with Total FilmTotal Film
Total Film is a British film magazine published 13 times a year by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and offers film, DVD and Blu-ray news, reviews and features...
, Aaron Johnson confirmed that the film stays true to the adult nature of the comic series by featuring a large amount of profanity and graphic violence. The film received an R rating by the MPAA
Motion Picture Association of America
The Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. , originally the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America , was founded in 1922 and is designed to advance the business interests of its members...
for strong brutal violence throughout, pervasive language, sexual content, nudity and some drug use—some involving children, and it received a 15 rating from the BBFC
British Board of Film Classification
The British Board of Film Classification , originally British Board of Film Censors, is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom...
.
Director Matthew Vaughn felt the 15 certificate was about right and expressed some surprise at the film having received a "PG rating"[sic] in France.
Filming
Filming locations include Hamilton, OntarioHamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
, Canada; Dip 'N' Sip Donuts on Kingston Road
Kingston Road (Toronto)
Kingston Road is the southernmost major road along the eastern portion of Toronto, specifically in the districts of East York and Scarborough. Until 1998, it formed a significant portion of Highway 2...
, Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School
Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School (Hamilton)
Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School is located at 1715 Main Street East Hamilton Ontario, and is a member of the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board. Opened in 1967, Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School has a 2009-2010 enrolment of 1100...
, and "many Toronto landmarks that play cameos"; and various locations in the UK, including Elstree Studios
Elstree Studios
"Elstree Studios" refers to any of several film studios that were based in the towns of Borehamwood and Elstree in Hertfordshire, England, since film production begun in 1927.-Name:...
.
The opening sequence with Nicolas Cage was filmed in a sewage plant in East London.
The Atomic Comics store in the film is based on the real-life chain whose owner, Millar said, is a friend of artist John Romita Jr.'s.
Miller asked Mike Malve for permission to use Atomic Comics in the film, and a model version of Atomic Comics was created at the London pilot studio for use in the filming.
Controversy
In January 2010, an uncensored preview clip of the film was attacked by family advocacy groups for its display of violence and use of the line "Okay you cunts, let's see what you can do now," delivered by Chloë MoretzChloe Moretz
Chloë Grace Moretz is an American actress, known for her role as Hit-Girl in the 2010 superhero film Kick-Ass. She also appeared in The Amityville Horror, Days of Summer, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Hugo, and portrayed Abby, the child vampire, in Let Me In.-Personal life:Moretz was born in Atlanta,...
, who was eleven years old at the time of filming. Australian Family Association
Australian Family Association
The Australian Family Association is a conservative political organisation with the aim of supporting and strengthening traditional family values. It was founded in 1980 by the National Civic Council's then president, B. A...
spokesman John Morrissey
John Morrissey
John Morrissey , also known as Old Smoke, was an Irish bare-knuckle boxer and a gang member in New York in the 1850s and later became a Democratic State Senator and U.S. Congressman from New York, backed by Tammany Hall...
claimed that "the language [was] offensive and the values inappropriate; without the saving grace of the bloodless victory of traditional superheroes".
Several critics like Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
and the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
s Christopher Tookey
Christopher Tookey
Christopher Tookey is an English film critic. He has written for both the Sunday Telegraph and The Daily Mail.Tookey was elected chairman of The Critics' Circle in 1995, but his bid to become vice-president floundered due to the position he took on the 1996 film Crash...
accused the film of glorifying violence, particularly violence by young children, while Tookey also claimed Hit Girl was "made to look as seductive as possible". Tookey's view on Hit Girl was strongly criticised, with many commentators—including Andrew Collins
Andrew Collins
Andrew Collins may refer to:* Andrew B. Collins , a U.S. research analyst* Andrew Collins , British journalist, scriptwriter, and broadcaster...
, the film editor of Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
—wondering why he had found the character sexualised, causing him to claim he was a victim of cyber-bullying.
In response to the controversy, Moretz stated in an interview, "If I ever uttered one word that I said in Kick-Ass, I would be grounded for years! I'd be stuck in my room until I was 20! I would never in a million years say that. I'm an average, everyday girl."
Moretz has said that while filming, she could not bring herself to say the film's title out loud in interviews, instead calling it "the film" in public and "Kick-Butt" at home.
Christopher Mintz-Plasse expressed surprise that people were angry about the language, but did not seem to be offended that Hit-Girl kills many people.
Box office performance
| Film | Release date | Box office revenue | Box office ranking | Budget | Reference | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | United States | International | Worldwide | All time United States | All time worldwide | |||
| Kick-Ass | April 2010 | $48,071,303 | $48,117,600 | $96,188,903 | #1,272 | Unknown | $30,000,000 | |
The film earned over $12 million internationally in advance of opening in the United States.
On its debut weekend in the United States, it took in $19.8 million in 3,065 theaters, averaging $6,469 per theater. Kick-Ass was reported #1, ahead of How to Train Your Dragon
How to Train Your Dragon (film)
How to Train Your Dragon is a 2010 3D computer-animated action fantasy film by DreamWorks Animation loosely based on the 2003 book of the same name. The film stars the voices of Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, T.J. Miller, Kristen Wiig, and Christopher...
by $200,000, which was in its third week of release. On Saturday, April 17th, 2010, it fell down to #3 behind How To Train Your Dragon and Date Night. On Sunday, May 2nd, 2010, it fell down behind A Nighmare On Elm Street, How To Train Your Dragon, Furry Vengeance, The Back-Up Plan, Date Night, Clash Of The Titans and The Losers. These numbers for Kick-Asss debut weekend gross included non-weekend earnings, as the film was previewed during the Thursday night prior to its release. This has led to the speculation that How to Train Your Dragon would have been No.1 for the weekend of 16 April had these earnings not been counted. The opening week numbers were considered by some analysts and the media to be a disappointment, though by others to be "fairly solid."
The film's final gross in the U.S. was $48,071,303 and $48,117,600 outside of the U.S.
Critical reception
| Film | Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance... |
Metacritic Metacritic Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,... |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Critics | Top Critics | Audience | ||
| Kick-Ass | 76% (235 reviews) | 67% (39 reviews) | 83% (211,361 reviews) | 66/100 (38 reviews) |
The film proved popular with audiences and was met with generally positive reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
gave the film a rating of 76% based on 229 reviews, with an average score of 7.0/10.
Rotten Tomatoes' selected top critics gave the film a rating of 85% based on 13 reviews.
Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
assigned the film a score of 66%, based on a weighted average of 38 reviews from mainstream critics.
In the United Kingdom The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
gave the film extensive coverage by several of its critics and journalists.
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw is a British writer and film critic. He was educated at Cambridge University, where he was President of Footlights.Bradshaw is a film critic for The Guardian...
gives the film 5/5 calling it an "explosion in a bad taste factory" and a "thoroughly outrageous, jaw-droppingly violent and very funny riff on the quasi-porn world of comic books; except that there is absolutely no 'quasi' about it."
Philip French
Philip French
Philip French is a British film critic and former radio producer.French, the son of an insurance salesman, was educated at the direct grant Bristol Grammar School, read Law at Oxford University. and post graduate study in Journalism at Indiana University, Bloomington on a scholarship.He has been...
, writing for The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
s Sunday associate paper The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
, called the film "relentlessly violent" with "the foulest mouthed child ever to appear on screen, [who makes] Louis Malle
Louis Malle
Louis Malle was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer. He worked in both French cinema and Hollywood. His films include Ascenseur pour l'échafaud , Atlantic City , and Au revoir, les enfants .- Early years in France :Malle was born into a wealthy industrialist family in Thumeries,...
's Zazie sound like Cosette
Cosette
Euphrasie "Cosette" Fauchelevant is a fictional character in the novel Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.- Cosette in the novel :...
" and one "extremely knowing in its appeal to connoisseurs of comic strips and video games."
David Cox, also from The Guardian, noted that the film "kicks the c-word into the mainstream...inadvertently dispatch[ing] our last big expletive."
Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
did not like the film giving it just 1/5 and stated, "Matthew Vaughn's Kick Ass is hollow, glazed, and not quite there".
Christopher Tookey
Christopher Tookey
Christopher Tookey is an English film critic. He has written for both the Sunday Telegraph and The Daily Mail.Tookey was elected chairman of The Critics' Circle in 1995, but his bid to become vice-president floundered due to the position he took on the 1996 film Crash...
of the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
warned, "Don't be fooled by the hype: This crime against cinema is twisted, cynical, and revels in the abuse of childhood".
Chris Hewitt of Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
magazine gave the film 5/5 and declared it, "A ridiculously entertaining, perfectly paced, ultra-violent cinematic rush that kicks the places other movies struggle to reach. ... [T]he film's violence is clearly fantastical and cartoonish and not to be taken seriously."
International critics who enjoyed the film generally singled out its audacity, humour, and performance from Chloë Moretz.
Peter Howell
Peter Howell
Peter Howell is a musician and composer. He is best known for his work on Doctor Who as a member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop....
of the Toronto Star
Toronto Star
The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...
gave Kick-Ass a top rating, noting that the production "succeeds as a violent fantasy about our perilous and fretful times, where regular citizens feel compelled to take action against a social order rotting from within."
USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
critic Claudia Puig praised Moretz as "terrific...Even as she wields outlandish weaponry, she comes off as adorable."
Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with A.O. Scott. She was formerly a chief film critic for the Los Angeles Times, the film editor at the LA Weekly, and a film critic at The Village Voice. She has written for a variety of publications, including Film Comment and...
from The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote, "Fast, periodically spit-funny and often grotesquely violent, the film at once embraces and satirizes contemporary action-film clichés with Tarantino-esque self-regard."
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman is an American film critic for Entertainment Weekly, a position he has held since the magazine's launch in 1990. From 1981–89, he worked at the Boston Phoenix....
of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
gave the film a B+, but noted that "personally, I just wish that the film had ended up a bit less of an over-the-top action ride."
In Film Journal International
Film Journal International
Film Journal International is a motion-picture industry trade magazine published by the American company Prometheus Global Media. It is a sister publication of Adweek, Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, and other periodicals....
, former Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
writer Frank Lovece
Frank Lovece
Frank Lovece is an American journalist, author, comedy performer and comic book writer. He was additionally one of the first professional Web journalists, becoming an editor of a Silicon Alley start-up in 1996....
said the "delightfully dynamic" movie "actually improves on the comic by not metaphorically kicking in our hero's teeth ... and making him a sad-sack schmuck who was wrong about nearly everything." He found that, "Comedy-of-manners dry humor ... plays seamlessly amid scenes of stylized, off-camera mayhem."
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the film one out of four stars. He called the film "morally reprehensible", appalled by the violent scenes in which an eleven-year-old murders dozens of gang members and is then almost beaten to death by an adult man. "When kids in the age range of this movie's home video audience are shooting one another every day in America, that kind of stops being funny." The movie made that week's "Your Movie Sucks" list of one-star movies.
Cinema Blend
Cinema Blend
Cinema Blend is a website founded and run by Josh Tyler dedicated to news and reviews of upcoming and currently playing films, movie projects, Television Shows, and a newly founded Music section which covers album reviews, band interviews and daily news from the industry. It combines gossip from...
accused the film of simply rehashing ideas from older superhero films, saying, "It's a subject which has already been covered endlessly by other movies, but Matthew Vaughn's film seems completely unaware of this fact, and bulls its way onward as if it's discovered something new."
Karina Longworth
Karina Longworth
Karina Longworth is an American film critic, film blogger, radio personality, author, and journalist based in Los Angeles. She is one of the founders of the film culture blog Cinematical and formerly edited both Cinematical and the film blog SpoutBlog and, while living in New York, was heard...
was also not impressed with the film's intended satire and themes: "Never as shocking as it thinks it is, as funny as it should be, or as engaged in cultural critique as it could be, Kick-Ass is half-assed."
Awards and nominations
| Award | Category | Winner/Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Teen Choice Awards 2010 Teen Choice Awards 2010 Teen Choice Awards were held on August 8, introducing a lot of new categories now separated into "Movie", "TV", "Music", "Summer", "Fashion" and "Other". The show aired on August 9, 2010 on Fox, co-hosted by Katy Perry, who also performed, and Cory Monteith, Chris Colfer, Kevin McHale, and... |
Choice Movie Actor: Action Adventure | Nicolas Cage Nicolas Cage Nicolas Cage is an American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona , The Rock , Face/Off , Gone in 60 Seconds , Adaptation , National Treasure , Ghost Rider , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , and... |
|
| Choice Movie Villain | Christopher Mintz-Plasse Christopher Mintz-Plasse Christopher Charles Mintz-Plasse is an American actor known for starring in films such as Superbad, Role Models, Year One, and Kick-Ass.-Early life:... |
||
| Choice Movie: Action Adventure | Kick-Ass | ||
| Choice Movie: Breakout Female | Chloe Moretz Chloe Moretz Chloë Grace Moretz is an American actress, known for her role as Hit-Girl in the 2010 superhero film Kick-Ass. She also appeared in The Amityville Horror, Days of Summer, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Hugo, and portrayed Abby, the child vampire, in Let Me In.-Personal life:Moretz was born in Atlanta,... |
||
| Choice Movie: Breakout Male | Aaron Johnson | ||
| People's Choice Award 37th People's Choice Awards The 37th People's Choice Awards, honoring the best in popular culture for 2010, were held on January 5, 2011 at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California, and were broadcast live on CBS at 9:00 pm ET... |
Favorite Action Movie | Kick-Ass | |
| The Comedy Awards The Comedy Awards The Comedy Awards is an annual award ceremony run by the American television network Comedy Central, honoring the best of comedy. The first ceremony took place on March 26, 2011 and aired on April 10 on CMT, Comedy Central, Logo, Spike TV, TV Land and VH1... |
Comedy Film | Kick-Ass | |
| Comedy Actress – Film | Chloe Moretz | ||
| Comedy Screenplay | Kick-Ass | ||
| Comedy Director – Film | Matthew Vaughn Matthew Vaughn Matthew Vaughn is an English film producer and director known for producing such films as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch and directing the films Layer Cake , Stardust and Kick-Ass... |
||
| Empire Awards Empire Awards 2011 The 16th Empire Awards , honoring the best in film in 2010, were held on March 27, 2011 at the Grosvenor House Hotel and hosted by Dara Ó Briain. Below is a complete list of nominees and winners. Winners are highlighted in bold.-Best Film:Inception* Kick-Ass* Scott Pilgrim vs... |
Best Film | Kick-Ass | |
| Best Actor | Aaron Johnson | ||
| Best Director | Matthew Vaughn | ||
| Best British Film | Kick-Ass | ||
| Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy | Kick-Ass | ||
| Best Newcomer (also for Let Me In Let Me In (film) Let Me In is a 2010 American romantic horror film directed by Matt Reeves and starring Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloë Grace Moretz. It is based on the 2008 Swedish film Let the Right One In , directed by Tomas Alfredson, and the novel of the same name by John Ajvide Lindqvist... ) |
Chloe Moretz | ||
| IGN Awards IGN IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment... |
Best Actress | Chloe Moretz | |
| Best Comic-Book Adaptation | Kick-Ass | ||
| Best Blu-ray | Kick-Ass | ||
| MTV Movie Awards 2011 MTV Movie Awards The 2011 MTV Movie Awards were held on June 5, 2011 at the Gibson Amphitheatre and were hosted by Jason Sudeikis.On May 3, the nominees were announced... |
Best Breakout Star | Chloe Moretz | |
| Biggest Badass Star | Chloe Moretz | ||
| Best Fight | Chloe Moretz vs. Mark Strong Mark Strong Mark Strong is an English actor, with a body of work in both films and television. He has performed in films as varied as Body of Lies, Syriana, The Young Victoria, Sherlock Holmes, RocknRolla, Stardust, and Kick-Ass... |
||
| Young Artist Awards Young Artist Awards 2011 The 32nd Annual Young Artist Awards ceremony, presented by the Young Artist Foundation, honored excellence of young performers under the age of 18 in the fields of film and television for the year 2010, and took place on March 13, 2011 at the Sportsmen's Lodge in Studio City, Los Angeles,... |
Best Performance in a Feature Film – Leading Young Actress | Chloe Moretz | |
| Critics' Choice Award Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards 2010 The 16th Critics' Choice Awards, which were presented on Friday, January 14, 2011 at the Hollywood Palladium, honored the finest achievements in 2010 filmmaking... |
Best Action Movie | Kick-Ass | |
| Best Young Actor/Actress | Chloe Moretz | ||
Home media
In an interview, Matthew Vaughn said, "There is about 18 minutes of [deleted] footage, which is really good stuff. If the film is a hit, I'll do an extended cut."The film was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on 3 August 2010 in North America.
This version does not contain the aforementioned deleted content.
Selling 1.4 million units within its first week, one-third of these in Blu-Ray format, Kick-Ass debuted at number one on the DVD sales chart. The discs released in the United Kingdom on 6 September 2010.
Video games
The video game based on the movieKick-Ass (video game)
Kick-Ass: The Game is a beat 'em up developed by Frozen Codebase and published by WHA Entertainment in 2010. It is based on the movie and comic book Kick-Ass.- Development :...
was produced by WHA Entertainment and Frozen Codebase
Frozen Codebase
Frozen Codebase is an independent video game developer founded in 2006 by Ben Geisler. The company develops games for Microsoft's Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Sony's PlayStation 3, Nintendo's Wii and WiiWare.-Teams:...
. It was released through the App Store on 15 April 2010 for iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
and iPod Touch
IPod Touch
The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line...
.
The initial Apple platform releases were reportedly unfinished beta versions and were withdrawn from circulation pending a relaunch of a finished version. The game was released on PlayStation Network on 29 April 2010. Kick-Ass, Hit-Girl and Big Daddy are playable characters. The game features Facebook missions and integration.
Both versions of the game received poor reviews.
Sequel
Director Matthew Vaughn has expressed interest in a sequel. Vaughn also said, "No, we're not [planning a sequel]. If it continues doing well, then we might but I just don't like counting my chickens before the eggs hatched."Moretz is enthusiastic about the idea of a sequel and said she would love to reprise the role of Hit-Girl.
On 16 March 2010, Mark Millar said he would begin writing a sequel comic book in April.
On 9 April 2010, Millar revealed details for the second series, which he said would involve criminals taking on supervillain personae to counter the superheroes, and Hit-Girl trying to lead a normal life.
In a 31 August 2010 interview with Richard Bacon on BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is the BBC's national radio service that specialises in live BBC News, phone-ins, and sports commentaries...
, Millar suggested that a sequel might have been given a go-ahead, speculating, "The estimate is [Kick-Ass] will do 100 to 150 million on DVD based on the American sales, you know, so it'll end up making a quarter of a billion on a 28 million investment. So it should be okay. So the sequel's green-lit, we can go ahead and do the follow up now, you know. The first made so much compared to what it cost it would be crazy not to."
In August 2010, Millar told MTV a sequel would be made and it would be called Kick-Ass: Balls 2 The Wall, though he admitted the earliest production could begin would be mid-2011.
On 5 April 2011, Jane Goldman
Jane Goldman
Jane Lauretta Anne Goldman is an English screenwriter, author, model and television presenter. Between 2003 and 2004 she fronted her own paranormal series, Jane Goldman Investigates, on the channel Living.-Personal life:...
said, "I don't think it's going to happen. At the moment, it's not in the works. We're all doing different things at the moment. We would love to do it again, but we've all been pulled in different directions."
On 24 May 2011, Vaughn said that he felt doing a sequel would be "crass". On 22 September 2011, Millar remarked that a sequel would be difficult to make. However, he also commented that "I obviously know more than I can say, but I think people will be pretty happy with the conversations we’ve been having". On 16 October 2011, when asked about the sequel, Moretz replied "Maybe, I can't say anything, but a little bit of news is coming. Just something, something we got up our sleeves." On 28 October, it was stated that the sequel will be announced soon.
Differences between comic and film
While being based on the comic book, Kick-Ass had several notable differences than its comic inspiration.- Kick-Ass has been shown to be the only character in the film with a similar costume to his comic book counterpart. All of the other main characters have different costumes in the film.
- Frank D'Amico is called John Genovese in the comic book. The name is taken from the Genovese crime familyGenovese crime familyThe Genovese crime family , is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia . The Genovese crime family has been nicknamed the "Ivy League" and "Rolls Royce" of organized crime...
.
- In the film, when Big Daddy quizzes Hit-Girl, they are in the armory while Mindy plays with her new knife. In the book, he quizzes her on a communication device whilst she is killing gangsters in a bar, with him providing over-watch with a sniper rifle.
- In the film, Hit-Girl and Big Daddy track Kick-Ass home by re-routing his IP address. In the comic, they simply follow him home.
- Big Daddy is not actually an ex-cop in the comics, as he admits to Genovese and Dave shortly before his death. He was in fact an accountant who, much like Dave, fantasized about being a superhero. He made up a fake history of himself and lied that he was an ex-cop with a personal vendetta against John Genovese (Frank D'Amico). He also gets money for himself and Mindy by selling his rare comic books. His comic backstory is touched in the film by his use of comic terminology in the attempted execution scene.
- In the film, Big Daddy is killed by being burned and succumbing to his injuries. In the comic, he is shot in the napeNapeThe nape is the back of the neck. In technical anatomical/medical terminology, the nape is referred to by the word nucha, which also gives the adjective corresponding to "nape" in English, "nuchal"....
(in a graphic depiction as the bullet exits through his left eye socket), shortly after he reveals that he was never a cop.
- When Kick-Ass is being tortured, he is not just beaten up like in the film, he has a car battery hooked up to his testes and is shocked extensively. The mobsters do not broadcast this torture session on the internet, as they do in the film.
- In the comic, Dave never becomes Katie's boyfriend; after he reveals that he was not gay, she calls him a pervert for pretending to be gay and orders her boyfriend to beat Dave. Afterwards, they send him a picture of Katie performing fellatio on her boyfriend. In the film, Katie forgives Dave for pretending that he was gay, realizing that Dave loves her, and she becomes his girlfriend.
- At the end of the comic when Red Mist is vowing his revenge against Kick-Ass, he is in fact writing an e-mail which he sends to him, as opposed to the film when he is just talking to himself.
- In the comic, Kick-Ass does not use a jetpack outfitted with machine guns during the climactic battle. In fact, he does not kill anyone at all (although he does seriously wound Red Mist's father by shooting him with a gun). Instead, he finds and pummels Red Mist with two large pieces of wood, while Hit-Girl kills everyone else.